Australia could do ‘substantially more trade’

UK trade with Australia could rise “substantially” if the countries strike a bilateral agreement following Brexit, High Commissioner Alexander Downer has said.

But he warned that if the UK remains in a customs union with the EU after withdrawal, it would have no say in its own trade policy and no ability to conduct negotiations with partners around the world.

The Australian High Commissioner said that his country’s experience was that reducing and removing tariffs on trade had a “substantial and very positive” impact on the economy.

Mr Downer told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “From Australia’s point of view here’s what we would like to see coming out of the Brexit debate. Number one, we naturally don’t want to see the EU and the UK introduce a whole lot of tariff barriers between them.

“That would be damaging to the European and British economies but damaging to the global economy – that’s what we are worried about. Number two, we do want to trade with the UK, and we want to build back our trade with the UK. We could build substantially more trade if we were able to negotiate a free trade agreement with the UK.

“If you remain in the customs union then you would have no control over an independent trade policy.

“Countries like Australia, China, Japan, the US and so on would not be able to conduct trade negotiations with the UK, we would only conduct trade negotiations with the EU.”

Mr Downer said Australia’s experience since the mid-1980s showed the “huge advantages of unilateral trade liberalisation”.